Chess- The Game of Life and Death

Chess, known to be the game of fate, is surely to have the most direct, legal response to players. Using their own set of chess pieces ranging from the highest in position (the king) to the lowest position (the pawn), the only objective of the game is to "checkmate" (place into a situation wherein the "king" of a player cannot do any legal move where it could escape against the defenses of the opposing party) his or her opponent. Same with the other player, the same objective go too. It is rare for players to actually eliminate all the pieces of his or her opponent, because each player is trying to checkmate their opponent as fast as they could. One of the most famous chess moves that I have encountered is the four-move strategy (also known to be the Scholar's mate), where the game will be finished with only four moves.

But then, for every chess game, there comes an official, underlying custom that I have been so careful of- the TOUCH-MOVE momentum. You touch a certain piece, and move it to its next destination. After doing it, a player cannot change the piece that he or she moved, and he or she cannot anymore change the place of the piece upon moving it to a tile. That is why utmost concentration, tactics, strategy, and assurance must be present. One correct move shall save you from defeat, but, one wrong move...

... shall BRING YOU TO A TOTAL DEFEAT.

For every action that businessmen do, they consider a lot of factors before doing a single plan of action. For as long as they are concerned, they are checking every branch and every corner of a decision made, so as not to bring the effects into a long-term situation. It is much better if it were only a short-term movement, but considering it to be a long-term movement, any wrong move shall mean, disaster or death. Utmost care and systematic process of decision making shall make a difference when it comes to managing a business and eventually placing it to the right spot.

The presence of technological changes, the emergence of new means of communication, the improvement of information systems, and the uprising of a new goal in business made drastic changes in the mindset of businessmen. These have improved the way they manage their businesses. With information technology continuing to improve to the best that it can to be able to bring the best out of it, almost the only problem of businesses is competiton among firms who also use the same strategy. There is an assurance that these firms shall succeed; it is only through implementation of their strategies, shall define the difference among all of them.

Like in the game of chess, every move is thought of very intensively. It doesn't matter whether it takes you a long time before moving a chess piece, than moving it as fast as you can without ever thinking where to go, or what the opponent might do as a strategy in response to your action. A move shall change everything, either for the benefit or for the worse.

BA 180.1 has thought me to take time to make strategies before placing them into action. Although it may be tedious since time is running, taking a short-term decline will be much better than taking a long-term negative impact. It is much better to lose 10 employees to cut costs than lose a billion dollars just to push through with production. Also, BA 180.1 has given me a thought that decisions made are to be slow yet sure, because, one wrong move done hastily may bring the whole effort into trash.

Like chess, the world of business is surely an exciting yet a threatening part of the career. I am excited to actually see what the world of business is.

-Agbayani, James Edward C.-
March 19, 2010